The end of the year is upon us, and all eyes are already set on the horizon as 2014 looms. Most players in Asia Pacific have a general idea of what to expect in terms of where the growth opportunities are, and how to get to them - and if they don't know that, they at least have a map on which to plot their course.
At the same time, that's a hard dollar when the industry as a whole is in flux, caught in a transitional period being driven by IT technology rewriting the rules and empowering consumers like never before. Everyone knows that the game is changing - the problem is figuring out what that means for you and where you should be focusing your priorities. And part of that is having a good idea of what's coming your way.
You'll be hearing about a lot of upcoming trends in 2014. What follows here are seven of them - six submitted by top industry analysts, plus one of our own - that we think will be worth watching and taking action on in the next 12 months.
In a nutshell, APAC operators can expect serious monetization opportunities in areas like apps and mobile finance services, but the pressure will be on in 2014 to master CEM and learn to collaborate better (especially with OTTs). In terms of access infrastructure, it won't all be about FDD LTE and FTTH - TD-LTE will break loose, and copper will play a major role in fiber rollouts.
Oh, and mobile data traffic in APAC will be huge. Yes, that sounds obvious - but we included it anyway because all the mobile data traffic growth you've seen in 2013? That's nothing compared to what 2014 is going to dump on your network.
Seven key strategies for thriving in 2014:
- Time to change your mindset
- New adventures in apps
- Finance services finally go mobile
- Monetization gets personal
- Mobile data traffic goes mega
- Copper crucial to FTTH plans
- Time for TDD
This article first published in Telecom Asia Vision 2014 Supplement
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